Prompt Engineering: Is it a New Programming Language?

Luu: As programmers and software engineers, we spend years mastering programming languages. We focus on learning the syntax, the APIs, and more. But what if I told you the most powerful "programming language" isn't a language at all, but rather the skill of asking the right questions? In the world of AI, being able to ask the right question and craft the perfect prompt might be more valuable than knowing how to implement a binary tree or optimize a database query. Welcome to the world of prompt engineering, where words become algorithms and conversations become code. The topic I want to discuss is whether prompt engineering is a new programming language or just a tool for developers to use on the side. That's right, we're going to debate this question.

I'm going to use the Oxford style for this debate, inspired by the Oxford Union Society, which has been around for about 200 years in England. This style follows a specific format. First, we'll present a motion and take an initial vote, where everyone will participate. Then, we'll discuss the arguments, followed by closing statements, and finally, we'll take a final vote. The debate's outcome is decided by the largest shift in audience votes. Your vote matters, and together, we'll determine the result of this debate.

The motion we have before us is whether prompt engineering is truly a new programming language or just fancy wordplay for those who can't write JavaScript. It seems Dilbert has a question: what is a programming language? You might have some idea, but it's still a relevant question. Let's take a moment to address it. A programming language is a formal way to communicate instructions to computers to perform tasks. It's a method of telling a computer what to do at a high level.

Dilbert has another good question to ensure we're on the same page. According to Claude and OpenAI, prompt engineering involves crafting precise instructions and inputs for AI language models to optimize the output for specific tasks. The key terms are instructions and tasks. Similarly, for OpenAI, it's about designing and refining input instructions to effectively communicate tasks and objectives to an AI language model. Do you see the similarity? Now we're clear on what prompt engineering is.